"ahamkArasya anadyanirvachanIyAvidyA upAdAnam"
- VivaraNa pramEya samgraha of Sri VidyAraNya
anirvachanIya avidyA is the material cause of ahamkAra.
"avidyAyAha paramEshwara adhishTitatvam nimittam |
jnAnashaktikriyAshakti dvayam svarUpam | kUTastha
chaitanyam pramANam | kartrtvabhOktrtvAdikam cha
kAryam | "
You also need to understand, "vishaya chaitanya"
and "pramANa chaitanya" to know this "knowing" in
advaita vEdAnta and see how it all works.
Let me know if you are keen on it.
> praNAm Jay Prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
> prabhuji, I think this is what the blunder you are making in trying to
understand shankara's advaita vedanta. How can you hold vidyaraNyA's VPS as
an authoritive source to understand shankara's adv. ved. when various
other subcommentaries available on his commentaries. As requested earlier,
it is always better to understand shankara's stand from his own works such
as prastana trayi bhAshya. Swamiji of HN pur discussed in length problems
in accepting upAdAna kAraNa / material cause of avidya (mulAvidya). I hope
Sri Sadananda prabhuji or Stig Lundgren prabhuji will address this very
important issue more elaborately. (There is a beautiful explanation my Sri
Atmachaitanya prabhuji in advaitin list under the thread *Whence Adhyasa*
wherein he clearly says *mulAvidya* was an alien theory to shankara's
prastana trayi bhAshya).
Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar